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CATHOLIC CHURCH

Spanish Church to mull optional celibacy and women priests

Spanish Catholics want Rome to consider talks on the future of the priesthood including optional celibacy, the ordination of women, and also of married men.

Spanish Church to mull optional celibacy and women priests
Spanish priests celebrate a mass at the Sagrada Familia basilica in Barcelona. Photo: Lluis Gene/AFP

Spanish Catholics want Rome to consider talks on the future of the priesthood including optional celibacy, the ordination of women and also of married men, a key document showed Saturday.
   
The document, a copy of which was seen by AFP, was unveiled by the CEE Episcopal Conference that groups Spain’s leading bishops at a 600-strong gathering in Madrid.

It was drawn up after months of consultation with more than 215,000 people, mostly lay people but also priests and bishops, with the proposals to be condensed into a final document that will be presented to next year’s Bishops in Synod assembly at the Vatican.

In it, they stress “the need to discern in greater depth about the question of optional celibacy for priests and the ordination of married people; to a lesser extent, the issue of the ordination of women has also arisen,” it said, while noting such issues were raised only in certain dioceses.

“There is a clear request that, as a Church, we hold dialogue about these issues… to be able to offer a more holistic approach to our society,” it said. It also stressed the need to “rethink the role of women in the Church” to
give them “greater leadership and responsibility” notably in places “where decisions are made”.

There was also “a need for greater care” for those who have been divorced or remarried or with an alternative sexual orientation. “We feel that, as a Church… we must welcome and accompany each person in their specific situation,” it said.

The document was unveiled just months after lawmakers approved Spain’s first official probe into child sex abuse within the Catholic Church through an expert independent committee.

The Church itself also took its first steps earlier this year towards addressing alleged abuse by clergy by engaging lawyers to conduct a year-long investigation that will take cues from similar probes in France and Germany. 

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CRIME

Spanish church’s audit finds fewer cases of abuse than commission

Spain's Catholic Church said Thursday that an audit it had ordered into child sexual abuse by priests had found significantly fewer cases than an independent commission appointed by parliament.

Spanish church's audit finds fewer cases of abuse than commission

At least 2,056 minors were victims of sexual abuse, according to an audit based on lawsuits filed against members of the clergy. It was however “obvious that the number is higher”, said the Spanish Episcopal Conference, which groups Spain’s leading bishops. The audit was prepared by the law firm Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo.

The figures from the audit are far lower than those cited in the independent commission published in October. It found that more than 200,000 were estimated to have been sexually abused in Spain by the Roman Catholic clergy since 1940.

That report did not however give a specific figure.

Instead, it extrapolated from a poll of over 8,000 people, which found that 0.6 percent of Spain’s adult population of around 39 million people had said they had suffered sexual abuse by members of the clergy during childhood.

That percentage rose to 1.13 percent — or more 400,000 people — when the questions included abuse by lay members.

Cardinal Juan Jose Omella, head of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, cast doubt at the time on the “dubious reliability” of those figures. He said the Church was aware of 1,125 cases of sexual abuse.

In February 2022, the Church tasked private law firm Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo with the audit — the first time that it had ordered an investigation into the issue. The brief covered past and present sexual abuse by clergy, teachers and others.

But one victim’s association dismissed the church audit as a “smokescreen”.

The Church has said it will publish the full audit, which it received on Saturday at a later date. But it said Thursday that the audit listed a total of 1,383 complaints
without saying how many members of the clergy had allegedly committed sexual crimes.

The victims were mainly men, and the sexual violence was committed mainly in schools and seminaries by priests or teachers, it added.

Unlike in other nations including France, Ireland and the United States, clerical abuse allegations are only now gaining traction in Spain.

A traditionally Catholic country, it has become increasingly secular.

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